Liberals Afraid of their own Propaganda

As I’m sure you’re aware, Democrats are absolutely terrified by the election of Donald Trump.

Trump will be an authoritarian dictator. White supremacist gangs will roam the streets beating up Hispanics. Muslims will be rounded up and put in concentration camps. Contraceptives will be banned. Poor people will be kicked out of hospitals. Workers will be ruthlessly exploited by tyrannical bosses. Women will lose the right to vote and police officers will be recruited exclusively from KKK members. (Okay, I made those last two up. But the rest are things I’ve heard liberals say.)

The Southern Poverty Law Center put out a report shortly before the election talking about how school teachers all over the country were reporting that children were coming to them crying about how terrified they were of what would happen if Trump won. My favorite part was endless accounts of black children saying they feared Trump would “send them back to Africa”.

Did Mr Trump ever say that he would do any of these things? Hint: The correct answer is “no”. The liberal fears are at best wild exaggerations of things Mr Trump said, and in most cases pure fiction. Like the bit about black children being deported: has Mr Trump, or any leading conservative, ever suggested they want to pack up all black people and send them to Africa? Where does this idea even come from?

For decades, liberals have been fighting conservatives with absurd accusations like “racist”, “sexist”, and “Nazi”. When they bother to try to back it up, the argument generally goes something like, “Conservatives oppose a policy proposed by President Obama. But the policy is far-left liberal socialist, so no one could possibly really be against that. The only explanation is that they are opposing it just because Mr Obama is black and they’re racists.” Or, “Conservatives say that maybe women shouldn’t go alone to seedy bars that they know are hang-outs for violent street gangs. How dare they tell women where they’re allowed to go! How dare they blame the victim! Instead of telling women not to take insane risks, why aren’t they telling street gangs not to assault women, huh? Obviously they’re sexist and misogynist.” Etc. I’m sure you’ve heard it all.

I used to think that they knew these accusations were pure propaganda for the purpose of confusing and demoralizing and intimidating conservatives and perhaps persuading a few low-information undecided. Surely they knew the accusations were not just false but plain silly. I mean, the people who make up the fake news stories know they’re fake, don’t they?

But seeing the total panic liberals have gone into with Mr Trump’s election, I’m starting to think they really believe their own propaganda. They’re afraid of their own shadows.

Have they been calling conservatives racists for so long that they forgot that they just made it all up?

Maybe when they make this stuff up, they’re honestly convinced that, sure, they’re just making up the specific facts, but surely conservatives have done stuff like this, they just haven’t been caught. Or maybe they really, honestly believe arguments like I parodied above: the only possible reason why someone could disagree with Mr Obama is because they’re racists, etc. (Actually, what I wrote isn’t a parody; it’s pretty much exactly what they say.)

Maybe the leaders realize it’s all hokum, but they have successfully convinced their followers that it’s all true. Like where did the school children in the SPLC’s report get these crazy ideas? Almost surely from their parents and teachers. (Well, assuming any actual children said this and it wasn’t all just made up.)

I wish I could confidently say that once Mr Trump has been in office for a few months or a year or so, and they see that he does not round up all the black people and the poor are not starving in the streets, they’ll realize it was all extremist propaganda. Maybe even turn on the people who lied to them for so long. But realistically, that won’t happen. Some reporter will find a case of someone who actually died of cancer after Obamacare was repealed!!, and present it as if no one ever died from cancer until Trump was elected. We’ll see his wife crying, “Trump killed my husband!” Or there will be a terrorist attack and they’ll say, See, Mr Trump claimed that he was going to get tough on terrorism and his plan obviously backfired because, look, terrorism didn’t suddenly end the day Trump took office. A homosexual teenager somewhere will commit suicide and they’ll say, We warned you! Mr Trump’s homophobic policies have forced homosexuals to kill themselves in despair. Etc.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author and are not not necessarily either shared or endorsed by iPatriot.com.

saneperson

I'm a software developer by profession. I've published three books -- one on database design and two about the Bible. I've contributed chapters to textbooks on criminology, economics, and women's rights. I've published magazine articles on software development, the Christian view of homosexuality, and creation theory. I'm a single father to four children. I could share further credentials but I think if what I write doesn't stand on its own, the credentials don't matter. I could share further personal details but that would be boring.

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